


Trouble

by EndOfStoryGoodbyeTheEnd



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 12:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6470746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndOfStoryGoodbyeTheEnd/pseuds/EndOfStoryGoodbyeTheEnd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They both had trouble with something. For him, it was sleeping. For her, it was waking up."</p>
<p>After reuniting before Terminus, a bit on sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble

They both had trouble with something. For him, it was sleeping. For her, it was waking up. 

Before everything had fallen apart again, she had always used him as a pillow. She put her head on his shoulder, his stomach, his lap. Now, she still used him as a pillow, but for a different reason. She put as much of herself on top of him as possible. Not just her head, or even just her head and shoulders, but her whole torso, her head on his chest and her arms draped over him. 

The first night he had her back he expected to sleep better than he had in a long time. This wasn’t going to be hard, because he had been barely sleeping at all anyway. There had been nights when he was thinking about the hunger gnawing at his stomach. There had been nights when all he could think about was the loss. 

It was the second nights that were the bad ones. 

She had an amazing ability to fall asleep whenever and wherever they were. He was sure this ability hadn’t failed her while they were apart. Unfortunately, she slept like the dead, and when she did fall asleep, not even gun shots could wake her. 

That first night, back together, the entire group was riding the euphoria of hope. Hope was something he didn’t think he’d lost sight of. Obviously, it had worked for him before, just the fact that she was there was an example of that. While he hadn’t lost hope exactly, he had certainly lost something. He wasn’t quite sure what it was. 

When they had been safe, deep sleep was a blessing. While he had woken at every cough or snore from the people in the surrounding cells, she had slept through it all, and sometimes she would take about thirty minutes to wake up completely. While they were separated, she seemed to have mastered being up instantly when she was actually woken. That didn’t mean it was any easier to actually wake her.

He noticed the problem almost immediately after they lay down the first night. Her breath was warm against his neck and his nose was full of the smell of her hair, and he knew in that moment she was perfectly, irrevocably alive, and safe. He could rest easy. 

He couldn’t shut his eyes. 

For a few minutes he couldn’t put a finger on it. He knew it was worry for her that had kept him up for the past few days. Worry she was dead, fear he might never find her, all the sinister thoughts that he fought back all day, come to the surface at night with nothing to keep his mind off them. 

But that was still it. It was too good to be true, finding her. If he shut his eyes, allowed himself to sleep, and opened them the next morning and she was gone… 

All the air escaped him in one big exhale. No. He couldn’t risk that. Maybe he could sleep tomorrow. When it all seemed a bit more real.

She shifted slightly on top of him, turning her head to rest her chin on her shoulder so she could look at him in the eyes. He had thought she was asleep. Her eyes scanned his, her face more angular in the dim light of the dying fire. 

“What?” she asked, watching him closely. 

He couldn’t lie to her or avoid the question, not this close to finding her. “I don’t want to sleep,” he told her quietly, mindful of the others sleeping around the fire only a few yards away. 

She reached out and touched his cheek, her fingertips light as she traced down the side of his face. “Why not?” she asked. Both knew the other hadn’t slept well over their separation. She couldn’t see why he wouldn’t sleep now. 

He offered her a soft smile, watching her as she tilted her head, studying him. “You sleep. I’ll be fine.”

At this she frowned, and the shadows deepened it further. “You need to sleep too.”

“I’m used to it,” he said truthfully, and this time her frown growing larger was not from the backlighting of the fire. She knew he had a bit of a tendency to be an insomniac when someone had to be on watch and he didn’t feel like sleeping anyway. It was better with her. He’d rather lie with her than stand outside with a gun, and sometimes he was lucky enough to fall asleep. 

She shook her head at him. “Maybe if you tell me why, I could help you.” 

He sighed. She continued looking at him pleadingly, her eyes huge and green, and he finally sighed again and shifted slightly to get more comfortable because he could never say no to her. Her face split in a triumphant smile, and he couldn’t help but kiss it off her face. 

She pulled back and glared at him. “You can’t distract me, now spill.” 

It hadn’t been his intention, but might’ve been an added bonus. He gave her a half smile back, and absentmindedly began running his hand over her back. 

“All of this is too good to be true. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning and find you gone again,” he admitted, and his fingers found a sliver of skin exposed by her shirt. She shivered slightly, but didn’t break eye contact.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said solemnly. “And neither are you. I’m here, this is real. You’re going to wake up and it’ll still be real.” 

She looked so earnest, and she had never lied to him before. So he nodded. “Okay.”

She seemed satisfied with this, so she put her head back on his shoulder and shifted slightly to get comfortable. He couldn’t see her eyes anymore, so he shut his. No reason to keep them open if he was going to try and sleep for her. He was tired. But his brain was alive, wondering a million different things. 

His mind went blank as he felt her lips on his neck, trailing her way slowly up, anchoring him. “Sleep,” she barely breathed the word, warm in his ear. 

For the first time in a long time he attempted to sleep. He focused on her rhythmic breathing, slowing down as she quickly fell asleep. 

He did as she said.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! We could all use a little bit more Glenn and Maggie in our lives. 
> 
> -Melissa


End file.
